Brett Anderson continues to make progress, still no Crisp

Brett Anderson conducted the quickest media session in history today, telling us as he walked through the dugout, “Went well, 20 pitches at 60 feet, 15 at 75 feet, no issues,” and continuing on without stopping. The man is efficient, he’s on a mission and he is probably sick as heck of talking about rehab instead of games.

(And if somehow that reads as if he was being a jerk, not stopping, that would be the farthest thing from the truth; Anderson is terrific with the media and it was quite amusing. I’ve never had someone conduct a press briefing while on the move. Shades of “The West Wing.”)

At any rate, this is a very rapid recovery from an oblique strain, and Anderson has missed only one week at this point, not much time at all for a starter who had been built up to the 100 pitch mark. If he is off the mound soon – and judging by the progress he has made so far, there is reason to believe he will be – then that first playoff game, likely to be next Friday, might be a bit of a stretch, but still something of a possibility.

With a one-game wild-card playoff, I’m not sure the team would prefer the guy who has been off for two weeks over Tommy Milone, who has been pitching well and is fully healthy, but then again, Anderson is the A’s best starter when healthy. It will be an interesting decision, because it’s a winner-takes-all game.

That’s why Oakland remains pointed at the division crown – no one-game series, plus the series would not start until a week from Saturday at the earliest. The A’s enter today three games behind Texas and with four games to play against the Rangers.

Still no Coco Crisp, Bob Melvin remains hopeful for tomorrow. Cespedes is DHing because of the bone bruise on the bottom of his right foot.

When Cespedes pulled up in pain after a triple last night, Melvin says Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre interpreted for Melvin and trainer Nick Paparesta. Melvin got a chuckle out of that, saying, “It’s good Beltre was there!”

(Ron Washington is probably thinking, “Beltre, why didn’t you tell them Cespedes said he needed to come out of the game and miss the rest of the series?!”)

The bone bruise, by the way, is likely to bother Cespedes the rest of the way. It would take a stretch of time off to heal. There is no such time remaining.

NBC Sports Network will air a behind-the-scenes feature about the A’s series at New York tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific; there’s also a segment on the White Sox, but MLB Productions were everywhere around the A’s at Yankee Stadium, and there will be in-game audio and scenes from A.J. Griffin and Jerry Blevin’s visit to the MLB Fan Cave, which should be amusing. That’s when the pitchers taught a bunch of strangers outside The Bernie.

Also, CSNCA has picked up Saturday’s game, getting an exemption to do so; that game falls within the Fox window. Very good job by CSN to get that done.

It would be nice to see the stands packed for the final six games at the Coliseum starting Friday, but from what I am hearing, the A’s are not expecting a big uptick in attendance. That is a crying shame: This is one of the best stories in sports this year, and one of the best stories in Bay Area sports history, and it’s going on right now, right here.

It’s understandable fans don’t like ownership or low payrolls or management decisions, what have you; it has been a rough stretch for Oakland fans, no doubt. But this team deserves to be supported. These players are doing something extraordinary.